Number 118 August 2013 NEWSLETTER OF THE NEWZEALANDMATHEMATICALSOCIETY PUBLISHER'S NOTICE................... 2 PRESIDENT'S COLUMN.................. 3 EDITORIAL .......................... 4 READERS' FORUM ..................... 5 INVITED ARTICLE ..................... 6 BOOK REVIEWS....................... 8 CYBERMATH......................... 9 MATHEMATICAL MINIATURE ............. 11 INTERVIEW.......................... 12 WHERE ARE THEY NOW? ................ 16 CENTREFOLD ........................ 18 LOCAL NEWS ........................ 20 REPORTS ON EVENTS................... 29 NZMS NOTICES ....................... 33 PUBLISHER'S NOTICE PUBLISHER'S NOTICE This newsletter is the official organ of the New Zealand Mathematical Society Inc. This issue was edited by Mark C. Wilson with paid proofreader assistance. Editorial enquiries and items for submission to this journal should be submitted as plain text or LATEX files to [email protected] with \NZMS newsletter" in the title of the email. The official address of the Society is: The New Zealand Mathematical Society, c/- The Royal Society of New Zealand, P.O. Box 598, Wellington, New Zealand. However, correspondence should normally be sent to the Secretary: Alex James Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch [email protected] NZMS Council and officers PRESIDENT Graham Weir VICE PRESIDENT Winston Sweatman SECRETARY Alex James TREASURER Mark McGuinness COUNCILLORS Astrid an Huef, Peter Donelan, Robert McKibbin, Tom ter Elst, Bruce van Brunt Other positions of responsibility MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY John Shanks NEWSLETTER EDITOR Mark Wilson LEGAL ADVISOR Peter Renaud ARCHIVIST Peter Donelan WEBMASTER Boris Baeumer Correspondents Alona Ben-Tal ANZIAM Jiling Cao AUT (SCMS) Shaun Cooper Massey University (IIMS, Albany) Charles Unsworth University of Auckland (Engineering Science) Rachel Fewster University of Auckland (Statistics) J¨orgHennig University of Otago (Mathematics and Statistics) John Haywood Victoria University of Wellington (MSOR) Jonathan Godfrey Massey University (IFS) Stephen Joe University of Waikato (Mathematics) Paul Shorten AgResearch G¨unter Steinke University of Canterbury (Mathematics) Aroon Parshotam NIWA Science Garry Tee University of Auckland (Mathematics) Chris Tuffley Massey University (IFS) Web Sites NZMS homepage: http://nzmathsoc.org.nz/ (Webmaster: [email protected]) The newsletter is available at: http://nzmathsoc.org.nz/?newsletter ISSN 0110-0025 2 NZMS Newsletter No. 118 PRESIDENT'S COLUMN Reflecting recent weather conditions, the last few months have been good, on average, for NZs mathematical community. Congratulations to John Butcher, Emeritus Professor of the University of Auckland's Department of Math- ematics, for being appointed an Officer of the Order of New Zealand in the Queen's Birthday Honours, for his services to mathematics, on 4 June, 2013. As Eamonn OBrien writes, \This is an appropriate recognition of John's many contributions to mathematics and to the mathematical community in New Zealand and world-wide during a long and distinguished career." Congratulations are also due to Rua Murray, from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Canterbury, for winning a Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching award. The Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards celebrate New Zealand's finest tertiary teachers - as recognised by their organisations, colleagues and learners alike. The NZ maths community has been fortunate to have had Terry Tao, arguably the world's greatest living mathematical prodigy, tour the country in late August, as the inaugural AMS-based Maclaurin Fellow. Terry has given public talks and technical seminars around the country, some to overflowing houses. Inside this issue is a summary of an interview of Terry by Robert McLachlan. Terry Tao visited the six major university centres in NZ, in the sequence: Auckland, Hamilton, Dunedin, Christchurch, Palmerston North and Wellington. Terry holidayed with his family in the North Island in the first week of his visit, and has indicated that when his family are older, he may be interested in touring the South Island. The NZMS Council has recently sent to the LMS a ranked list of possible speakers from the LMS, one of whom could tour NZ as the 2014 Forder lecturer. The initiative to form a Maths Education committee is progressing, with a major aim being that the NZMS will provide the NZ community with independent and hopefully influential commentary on mathematical educa- tion issues, such as the school syllabus. The current committee comprises of the NZMS President, Angela Jones, Alex James, Pip Arnold, Sean Cooper, Winston Sweatman, Stephen McConnachie, Jen Hudson, Luke MacEwan, Dillon Mayhew and Mike Camden. This committee will participate in a closed session at NZAMT13 in October. Recent data from Australia shows that Australian graduation rates in the mathematical sciences is only half that of the OECD average for men, and one-third for women. Perhaps contributing to this statistic is that more than 30% of secondary school mathematics classes in Australia are taught by staff not trained as mathematics teachers. The Australian mathematical community is suggesting that these statistics should be raised as a concern in the upcoming Australian election. If similar statistics hold in NZ, then this may become an issue of concern for the Maths Ed committee. Another recent highlight has been the successful completion of the Maths Quest poster competition, on 29 August, in which 16 (of the 17) winners travelled to Wellington. This is described in more detail inside. However, reflecting the instability of weather systems, the bad news comes from my own institute, Callaghan Innovation, which has decided to disband its applied mathematics team. This group has a linked history extending back to the 1940s, to the earlier DSIR times. Graham Weir NZMS President 3 EDITORIAL EDITORIAL Incoming editor's notes I have taken over as Editor from Steven Archer, effective from this issue. I thank the NZMS Council, and particularly Graham Weir and Alex James, for their help so far. Reading the previous newsletters is an interesting experience, and I hope I can keep the newsletter above its historical average quality, and approach or exceed the maximum. The general goals set in Issue 1 (available online and highly recommended) still stand: to inform mathemati- cians in New Zealand, often separated by substantial geographic and disciplinary distance, about activities in other centres, and to foster a sense of community and encourage discussion. In particular, I aim to help produce something of value to a wide variety of readers, including research mathematicians in universities, PhD students, former colleagues now overseas, members working in industry or pre-tertiary education. This issue marks a change in the venerable NZMS Newsletter. Based on changes in costs and income, and supported by 52 of the 63 respondents to the online survey (which I initiated a few weeks ago, and about which all members were notified by email), we will no longer be producing a paper version as a default. I realize that some readers will not be happy with this decision. As consolation I can only offer the following: • You can always print out and staple a paper copy of your own. The paper versions mailed to members had no added value beyond that (no special paper, for example, as the AMS Notices has). • For at least a while, those requesting a paper copy (as per Graham Weir's email in August) can have it mailed as before, thanks to John Shanks. This service may not last forever. • We will be able to use hyperlinks. Importantly, the Newsletter will be produced on time and with higher quality proofreading. The current issue is slightly later than intended for future issues, because we wanted to cover some late news. In general, members should expect the issue by the end of the month of issue. The overall format of the newsletter will not change greatly. Perceptive readers may soon notice a change in font, and minor improvements in presentation are in the works. I plan the general structure of the newsletter to be roughly as follows: opinion, ideas, people, events, notices. Under \people" the Local News will be refocused and trimmed somewhat. A new \Focus on" section will give a more detailed snapshot of a particular department or research group. I would like photos, especially of new colleagues and interesting events, for an expanded photo section. Under \opinion", I aim to facilitate more discussion via a Readers' Forum, and hereby call for you to send me a Letter to the Editor or an opinion piece. I plan some new regular features, to be gradually introduced as content providers allow their arms to be twisted. This will probably involve a small increase in overall mathematical content. The online survey showed broad agreement for these changes. This newsletter couldn't be produced without the contributions of content from many people, whose efforts I gratefully acknowledge. Anyone is free to submit content suggestions to the editor and I encourage all readers to do so, in particular PhD students, whom we intend to be involved more in the Newsletter. A note to those who contributed to this issue: in order to produce it on time I was not able to get your approval for edited versions of your copy. If you have any concerns about this becoming the regular policy, please let me know. Mark C. Wilson Editor 4 NZMS Newsletter No. 118 READERS' FORUM Please send your Letters